Chapter 2: Kelly
Chapter Text
Kelly's the safest, the one closest to a happy ending, and therefore the one Simon is most afraid of approaching.
He needs her separate from the others, so she can approach Seth without tempting the others. This is harder than expected.
He briefly considers trying to push her to Curtis. His manouevring of Nikki and Curtis feels cruel, knowing Nikki has so little time; but remembering that Alisha's is only months more hardens his resolve.
Alisha and Kelly weren't dangerously close, but his demand that Alisha tell no-one about him aids in creating a small barrier between them.
He calls in an animal spotting from the borough furthest from Thamesmead, hoping to distract police as much as possible, so that she stays with the gorilla, away from as much conflict as possible.
The only weak link is her closeness to Nathan.
He relies on Nathan to do at least some of the destruction of his and Kelly's relationship himself, destruction being his speciality.
As for himself, he twists the knife a little more every time the tattoos play out, this time a little more vulnerable, that shyly interested; trying to work out which combination can cause the indomitable Kelly to falter, which reaction will leave Nathan with more to prove, which will blow their budding romance to smithereens most effectively.
He doesn't need the hoodie and armour often for Kelly, stays on rooftops as much as possible, out of her range. He tails her to Vince's, shame rising as Vince kisses her. Sometimes it's more.
Those loops he returns later, rubbing peanut oil on the surfaces, hiding the epipens, disconnecting the phone.
A few times, Vince catches him lurking. He's amused in a dry way to see his own matching tattoo those times. Alisha's curled lip at his and Nathan's endearments, part sentimental, part pornographic, is as beautiful on her as adoration, as it keeps her safer a little longer. For some reason in this timeline, she often survives up to three more months.
Sometimes he thinks he could happily sacrifice Kelly for her, that Alisha and even Nathan, both beautiful and cruel from the beginning, meant so much more to him with so little effort, but it's bad enough that he's let Curtis down.
Every time he considers it, he remembers Kelly reaching out to comfort him, before the others, before anyone, and he can't help but be happy for her: saving children, laughing with Seth, eating Pot Noodles. Even in the loops where Alisha bleeds out; where he dies in her arms; where Curtis ends his wasted potential in a dirty quarry, a bullet in his head; where Nathan is caged in a coffin or a cell or his own mortality.
He thinks maybe that's what she deserves.